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CHAPTER I.
TOPOGRAPHY.* - GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. - SURFACE GEOLOGY. - SOILS. - ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. - WATER SUPPLY. -ANALYSIS OF TOLEDO CLAY.-THE HISTORIC "GREEN SCUM" ON THE MAUMEE.
THE surface of Lucas County is nearly flat. From the shore of Lake Erie there is an almost imperceptible ascent to the Western boundary, which has an elevation of from 90 to 130 feet. The Lake coast is low, and guarded by a sand beach. The Maumee River, which forms a part of the Southern boundary, and divides the County into two unequal triangles, descends 60 feet in a series of rapids, over limestone strata, from Providence to Maumee City, the head of slack water and of navigation. The same beds of limestone project above the level drift, at a few points further North, but have no notable influence on the topography.
The rocks of the County are : Huron Shale, Hamilton Group, Corniferous Group, Waterlime Group, Onondaga Salt Group and Guelph Group (Niagara).
Guelph, Group.-There are no rock exposures in the Eastern Townships, but enough outcrops have been observed in the neighboring parts of Ottawa County to render it highly probable that the Guelph beds underlie a considerable portion of the Town of Oregon.
The Waterlime and Onondaga Salt Groups have not been separated in this County, and there is some doubt as to the occurrence of the latter. At Genoa, in Ottawa County, characteristic Waterlime fossils are found but a few feet above the Guelph limestone.
The Waterlime is exposed at various points. From the West line of Waterville, to slackwater at Maumee City, it forms the bed of the Maumee, presenting a series of variable sectile, argillaceous limestones, with numerous local flexures, but no decided general dip. The same beds are exposed on the plain near Maumee City, in the bed of Swan Creek at Monclova Village, and at Fish's quarry, in Northern Monclova. In Sylvania, Ten-mile Creek cuts the Waterlime for some distance, and it is
*See Geological Survey of Ohio. Report of J. S. Newberry, Chief Geologist, 1870.
further exposed in the road West of the Village, so as to afford the following section
FEET.
Alternations of hard gray, and soft drab limestones, both thin-bedded. 40
Massive buff limestone, in part brecciated, with many
small, lenticular cavities, and some chert nodules 30
Gray, shaly limestone-exposed 6
Total 76
The Corniferous Group is seen to overlie the Waterlime in Sylvania, at Fisher's quarry, and in the bed of the Maumee, the line of junction crossing Sylvania, Springfield, Monclova, and Waterville, in a Southerly direction. All of its members are exposed in Sylvania, in a rocky ridge, that lies two miles West of the Village. They are
FEET.
6. Dark, bluish gray, sectile limestone, with crowded fossils 5
5. Thick-bedded, open, buff limestone, with white chert 25
4. Drab limestone; beds 6 to 10 inches 50
3. Alternations of hard, arenaceous limestone, with fine
grained, gray limestone 52
2. Massive, friable white sandstone (glass-sand) 20
1. Soft, massive, cream and buff limestone, with fossils at top 12
Total 164
The full thickness of the upper bed is not shown. At Whitehouse, 15 feet are seen, but the upper limit is nowhere exposed. At Sylvania, all the beds dip rapidly to the West, and their outcrops can be noted in the space of a mile. Southward, the dip diminishes, and the belt of outcrop becomes broader, until, where it leaves the County, in Providence, it is not less than five miles across. Nos. 2 and 3 outcrop at Fish's quarry, Nos. 5 and 6 at Whitehouse, and No. 3 two miles further East. In the bed of the Maumee the glass sand (No. 2) is seen a few rods East of the East line of Providence, and the successive strata appear in order as we ascend to the Providence dam, which rests on the buff limestone (No. 5). Fossils occur in nearly all the beds, but are especially abundant in the highest and the lowest. Few were collected, as good specimens are rare, but of those that were preserved Mr. F. B. Meek, the Palaeontologist of the
20 - HISTORY OF TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY.
Survey, distinguished 34 species of invertebrates. The fishes, that so abound in the equivalent beds at Sandusky and other points East of the great anticlinal axis, are but meagerly represented. A few teeth of onychodus have been found in limestones 1 and 5, and the gray limestone (No. 6) yielded at Sylvania a single cranial bone not referable to any described genus.
The Hamilton Group is not exposed, but is believed to be represented by a bed of soft gray shale, outcropping in a narrow band along the edge of the Huron shale. At Delta, Fulton County, where it was traversed in boring for oil, it has a depth of 20 feet.
The Huron Shale, a hard bituminous black shale, is entirely concealed under the drift, but has been struck by the auger at many points in Richfield. It must underlie the whole of that Town, together with Spencer and Swanton, and the Northwest portion of Providence. Its dip is to the West.
Glacial Strice are found in Lucas County, wherever the Erie clay is freshly removed from the rock surface. Even the friable sandstone of the Corniferous, which crumbles away at the first frost, has preserved them. Their bearings were noted at seven different localities, and range from S. 80° W. to S. W., the general direction being S. 55° W. The effect produced, when the ice encountered some flint nodules in the waterlime at Monclova Village, is very interesting. Each hard nodule projects boldly from the ice-planed surface, and retains a long train or ridge of the limestone on one side. The semi-plastic ice did not at once fill the groove curved in it by the unyielding flint, and so failed to remove the limestone immediately behind it. These trains all point in one direction (S. 60° W.), and prove that the motion of the ice was toward, and not from, that direction. By the kindness of Messrs. Coder and Wilson, of Monclova, a slab of this worn limestone has been placed in the State collection. The superficial deposits consist of two members: the Erie clay and the Lacustrine clay and sand. The former was deposited immediately after the retreat of the glacier, and is formed of glacial detritus, transported in part by icebergs. The latter are due to the sorting and redeposition of the former, by Lake action. At Toledo, the Erie clay is blue, and the Lacustrine yellow, but the distinction is not general. Bowlders afford a better mark, for they are rarely absent, in this vicinity, from the Erie clay, and never present in the Lacustrine. A majority of the Erie clay bowlders attest their glacial origin by exhibiting one or more ground faces. A large and beautiful specimen of Trenton limestone, in the possession of Dr. J. B. Trembley, of Toledo, is plainly a fragment torn from the bed of the glacier, and not subsequently worn, but deposited with its fractured edges still angular. The leveling action of the Lacustrine forces has proceeded further in Lucas than in the more Westerly Counties, as it was longer submerged. The original surface of the Erie clay doubtless conformed, in great measure, to that of the subjacent rock, but has been remodeled without regard to it. While there is no drift on the limestone ridge, at Sylvania, its depth is over 145 feet at Metamora, eight miles West, and nearly 100 feet at Toledo, 10 miles East. The sand tract of the County records a shore action similar to that now transpiring at the head of Lake Michigan. The sand accumulated by the currents, was thrown up by the waves in beaches, and by the wind in dunes. It is so fine (and hence light and mobile) that it owes its present form chiefly to the wind, and no persistent beach ridges remain. In its vertical range, it extends from 60 feet above the present Lake to 110 feet, and will not improbably be found, when its connections shall have been traced, to represent more than one stage of water, if, indeed, it was not accumulated during a gradual subsidence. The belt crosses the country in a Northeast and Southwest direction, covering Swanton, with a considerable portion of Providence, Spencer, Monclova, Springfield and Sylvania, and small areas in Waterville and Washington. An extension Southeastward from Sylvania covers nearly the entire Town of Adams.
It is reported by Dr. J. B. Trembley that a tooth of mastodon was obtained from a marsh in the Town of Springfield. I was unable to ascertain the precise locality and other particulars, but, as all the marshes of that Town lie in depressions, that originated with the dunes, the tooth cannot be more ancient than they; and the mastodon is shown to have survived at least, to the epoch of the lowest raised beach of Lake Erie.
The Towns of Oregon and Manhattan, and
ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. - 21
the Eastern part of Washington, are part of the tract of country to which the name of the " Black Swamp " has been applied. The soil is a fine clay, black with decayed vegetation, and varied by streaks having an admixture of sand. Lying nearly level (the average descent Lakeward is four feet per mile), it has retained water on its surface many months in each year, and, by its aid, converted into mold the leaves and trunks that have fallen upon it. Most valuable assistance in this work has been rendered by the fresh-water lobsters that abound throughout the district. When the land dries they dig little wells that they may retain the supply of water essential to their existence. As the season advances, they burrow deeper and deeper, always bringing the excavated clay to the surface, where it is mingled with the mold. In this way the mold has become incorporated with the clay to a considerable depth, constituting a soil of great endurance. The soil of Richfield and Northwestern Sylvania is somewhat similar in character, but has a fine gravel, evenly mingled with the clay.
Along the margins of the sand district are belts of shallow sand, with clay subsoil, and supporting, like the clay soils, a heavy forest growth.
The district of deep sand is covered by " oak openings." It comprises many treeless, sandy swamps, some of which are of considerable extent. There can be no doubt that thorough drainage will convert them from inhospitable, miasmatic wastes into superior farming lands.
Building Stone.-The Upper Buff limestone (No. 5, in the table of Corniferous rocks) is the most important building stone in the County. It is readily quarried in large blocks, and very easily wrought while wet. While it is an impure limestone, it contains no sand, and it owes its open texture, not to loose aggregation, but to the loss of some component by dissolution. It has been extensively used, with the best results, for abutments and like heavy work, and it is now proposed to saw it into slabs for lintels, sills, etc. The principal quarries are at Whitehouse and Providence, while it is also worked in Sylvania, on the farms of Mr. Lee, Mr. Shay, and Mr. Kenyon Cooper.
The Arenaceous limestone (No. 3) is likewise a valuable building stone. It is most extensively worked by Mr. George Loeb, at a point two miles East of Whitehouse, and by Mr. Wm. Fish, in Northern Monclova. Near the former quarry, Mr. A. Shear, near the latter, Mr. W. S. Holt, and in Sylvania, Mr. J. Rampus, have openings in the same bed.
The stoneless Lacustrine clay is well adapted and extensively used for the manufacture of bricks. On the border of the sand district it contains a measure of incorporated sand, in virtue of which it is the more readily worked. Bricks burned from it have a pale red color, which is commonly heightened by an admixture of the convenient ferruginous sand.
Lime is manufactured for local consumption from beds of the Waterlime group, at Maumee City, at the Villages of Waterville and Monclova, and at Fish's quarry; from the Drab limestone of the Corniferous (No. 4), at Sylvania (by Mr. Cooper), and at Providence; and from the Gray limestone (No. 6), at Whitehouse. All of these form efficient and durable cements, but differ in color and facility of use. Those from the Corniferous beds slake and set more quickly than the others, and evolve in slaking a great amount of heat. A series of experimental tests of these and other limes, available for the Toledo market, was undertaken, but no satisfactory result was reached, and they will be continued in the coming season.
It is hoped that in the Waterlime group will be found beds suitable for hydraulic cement. Several samples that were selected for examination have been shown, by Dr. Wormley's analyses, to resemble the best cement rocks very closely in chemical composition ; but the more practical and decisive tests are yet to be applied.
The friable sandstone (No. 2) affords a nearly pure white sand, adapted to the manufacture of glass. In 1863 it was opened in Sylvania, on the farm now owned by Mr. John Rampus, by Messrs. Card and Hubbard, and a considerable quantity quarried, ground and shipped to Pittsburgh, Pa., where it was used in making flint glass. Seven or eight hundred tons bad been shipped, when the business terminated, in consequence of the death of the managing partner, Mr. Card. The price received for the sand, delivered in Pittsburgh, was $16 to $17 per ton.*
* The development of the Water Supply, Building Stone and Glass Sand is noted elsewhere.
22 - HISTORY OF TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY.
Water Supply.-The first discovery of the Artesian water, now obtained in so many part of the Maumee Valley, was made in Bryan, in 1842. The water does not differ materially in character from that ordinarily received from the Drift, and owes its Artesian bead to some peculiarities of the distribution of the sand beds of the Erie clay, by which they are enabled to carry the water which permeates the from higher to lower levels, while they are prevented from discharging it through springs by a continuous covering of impervious clay. The flowing wells of Williams County are part of series that occur in a narrow belt of country, lying just West of the upper beach. The evenly spread Lacustrine clays form, in this case, the impervious cover, and the reservoir, by whit the flow is rendered perennial, is afforded by the broad, and often deep, sand beds, from which the supply is directly obtained. More remotely it is doubtless derived from the oxidized upper portion of the unmodified drift lying East of, and higher than the beaches. This is generally permeable, and receiving the water from rains, yields it slowly to the sandy beds wherever they are connected.
The wells of Lucas County are of two classes the shallow and the deep. The shallow piers only the Lacustrine deposits, and receive either the water that accumulates in the deep sand of the oak openings, or that which percolate through what sandy beds are interstratified with the Lacustrine clay; the deep penetrate nearly or quite to the rock. I am not away that any wells draw water from the body o the Erie clay. Though it contains frequent permeable beds, they are not so connected a to permit a free circulation.
At the base of the Erie clay, and resting o the rock in situ, there are commonly-not al ways-a few feet, or a few inches, of grave and sand, from which water rises freely, sup plying the Artesian and other deep wells Whether the water is confined to this horizon or circulates also through the underlying rock is a question of little importance If we say that it passes under the clay, along the lime stone ridge, in the West part of the County and follows the rock surface until it find escape upwards, we shall have proposed theory by no means demonstrable, but quit adequate to account for the Artesian head in Toledo and Oregon. The Artesian water of Richfield rises higher than this supposed source and must receive its supply from some point further West. The water in the Toledo wells formerly stood 14 feet above the Lake level ; but with increasing use, has gradually fallen to seven feet, and the only wells now flowing discharge below that height.
In July, 1859, an analysis of Blue Clay underlying Toledo was made. It was taken from a cut then made in Adams Street, West of Michigan Street. Fifteen parts of the Clay yielded the following result
PARTS.
Protoxide of Iron (FeO) 1.25
Silica (SiO3) 2.79
Carbonate of Calcium (CaO, Cos) 0.14
Water (HO) 1.68
Alumina (A1O) 7.90
Trace of Sulphur and loss 1.24
15.00
Four parts of Alumina yielded 1.25 parts of metallic Aluminum. This analysis at the time
attracted some attention, and more especially by the showing made of Alumina. But it has never
been considered best to pursue the matter further.
In August, 1859, Mr. Aug. A. Fahnestock, Horticulturist, of Toledo, made careful examination nation of the green matter, which previously, more than at that time, had appeared on the s surface of the River at that season of the year, s the result of which was thus stated by that gentleman
First, that it is the pollen or fecundating of an e aquatic plant, the Zizanix Aquaticx, or Indian Rice. f This plant is always found in low, swampy lands and t along the borders of Rivers and streams. It attains s an altitude of from three to nine feet, and begins shedding its pollen about the 1st of August and continues until late in September. The pollen when n thrown from the glumes, is of an oval shape, and in color light yellow. When submerged it loses its color, 1 and commences to vegetate ; and if it does not happen to be thrown into shallow water, soon decomposes. From the immense quantities of this pollen, many would think it impossible to be of vegetable origin ; but we have only to examine that borne by the Thistle, Poppy and many other common plants, to find a parallel. What effect this decaying vegetation may have on the health of the City, I am unable to say. It is a question for Chemists and Physicians.
Since the date above named, the pollen has a almost wholly disappeared from the surface of the River.